Love Bites (But So Do I)
by silverashtrees
Summary: After a job leaves them stranded, Lucy and Natsu have a heart-to-heart while awaiting rescue. Rated T because kinkiness.


**This is my first Fairy Tail story, so I'm still trying to get the characters to fit their speech, etc. I've decided to set this after the seven year gap, but moreso around the time everything was kinda peaceful and they just went on simple jobs together. It's a short Natsu & Lucy story I planned out, and this is just the first chapter, though I will add more if you like it so remember to review. :)**

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"Uhhhh..." groaned the celestial mage, her slim arms dangling at her sides in pain. Her pale flesh was flushed in particular places, covered in splotches of dirt, gravel and blood where her small wounds had leaked. The mixture of mud and blood had traveled through and onto the blonde's clothing, too, leaving her already-revealing shirt and mini skirt torn and filthy. Her hair looked like she'd been dragged through a bush backwards, the low pigtails she once wore now tangled in twigs, and her nose trickled with light fluid as she mumbled and grumbled in pain and fatigue.

In front, leading the way, strode a stronger build. The fire mage was in much of the same condition as his teammate, though he fought groans of pain back, attempting to stay strong. He gritted his sharp teeth with force.

A night and a half ago, the wizards had previously decided on taking an S-class mission amongst themselves. Of course, that seemed unacceptable - so Erza and Gray tagged along too (Happy decided to stay at the guild). Once arriving, the mission seemed easy enough for the strong foursome...

But, unfortunately, it gave them all a harsh beating.

It took them exactly a day to finally bring the beast down that was terrorising a large city of gnomes; what with planning, debating, arguing, and of course, fighting - it took up their whole day, which is a lot longer than it should have. It was clear they were disappointed in themselves.

With one last blow from the armoured redhead, the 50ft beast fell to its death, crash landing. The upside: it was dead and the gnomes were happy. Downside: as the beast fell, its unrealisticly heavy body shuddered the ground so hard that it seperated the four in half. Shooting all of them flying in different directions!

Gray flew back 60ft in the air, his body heading North. Erza tried to grab him but the force was too strong, and her body collided with his, sending them both in that direction via air travel. On the other side of the monster's body, Natsu had grabbed hold of a steady tree waiting for the force of the crash to stop.

"LUCY!" he cried suddenly, barely audible over the strongs winds the crash had created. It was insane.

The dragon slayer's eyes squinted through the winds, putting out his fire. His fingers were slipping, and he had no idea where Lucy was. He'd witnessed Erza be sent flying into the ice mage, shooting them off several miles. As long as they were together, he'd thought, he'd have hope that they were all right. But what worried the salmon haired male... he hadn't seen where Lucy was thrown off to.

As the winds became stronger all of a sudden, something surfaced in the distance. Natsu gasped, his eyes widening in terror. The crash of the beast was so strong - it had caused a tornado to form, tearing down trees as it made its way to Natsu himself.

At that moment, the fire mage lost grip on the tree, his hands completely slipping and losing touch of anything. Due to this, his body was thrown back into yet another tree, but the dragon slayer was too strong, and collided his feet with the tree first, sliding down to the grassy ground so that he was less vulnerable to the crazy winds above. He shielded his face with his arm, running across the open space of grass and dirt to take cover underneath something.

He turned and watched as the gnomes buried themselves under the stumps of trees, the tornado had turned away from Natsu's direction, planning another route. On further inspection... it looked as though, rather than the force of the beast's fall creating the tornado, that the beast itself must had summoned it right before its death.

Which meant if it was a spell, it wouldn't be able to last long without its summoner. And its summoner - the beast - was in fact dead (he prayed).

His eyes scrunched, anger taking over as he watched the spell become weaker and weaker, its only goal: to kill. Teeth bared and gritted. The tornado finally whimpered with defeat, and died out. Natsu sighed and let his tense grip go of the tree stump he hid behind.

He looked up as the sky made a sound that could only resemble a roar.

It was only thunder, but if it started pouring down with rain it'd be a lot harder to find his guild members. Natsu stood up, ignoring the fact his clothes were torn to shreds, his shoes were missing and he was covered in dirt and blood.

"LUCY!? ERZA? GRAY!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, brow still furrowed with worry. He turned in circles, deciding what to do, when he spotted a pair of bare legs.

His face fell into a full emotion of fear, twisting with anxiety as he ran over to the legs. The feet were also bare, all up the legs covered in tiny scratches and splashes of muddy water. Natsu fell to the floor as he pulled back the giant leaves and branches to uncover the torso and face of this pair of legs. It was Lucy, and she wasn't conscious.

"C'mon Lucy, wake up!" he cried, picking the female wizard up out of the dirt and setting her down again, her head resting against his muscular arm. "Lucy... Come on!" he tapped her cheek a few times with his palm, his teeth still gritting with worry.

"N-Natsu..." her voice was shaky and unsure. Two eyes lightly opened, adjusting to everything around them, revealing two puppy dog brown eyes. "What happened?" she asked huskily.

"Looks like that monster we took down summoned some sort of spell right before its death," he replied, pulling her up into a sitting position before standing up himself. "You feeling okay?" he outstretched a hand. Lucy took it, pulling herself up to stand in front of Natsu. She looked around at all the damage.

"Where's Erza and Grey!" she came out with suddenly, in a more than frantic tone.

Natsu pointed behind himself. "Wind took 'em North. So I guess we're headed that way, too." He took off, his hands balled into fists as he made his way in the direction that Erza and Grey flew. Lucy watched after him with innocent eyes full of worry, but they snapped up to the sky when she heard a roar of thunder. Tiny spits of rain came down over the top of them, not quite ready for a storm yet. Sludging her small toes into the damp mud, Lucy caught up with the fire mage, walking wearily behind him, fearful that she may upset him even more when he was clearly already in a bad mood, and she honestly wasn't in the mood herself to have her feelings hurt with his harsh words - whether he meant them or not.

Hours and hours later of walking through soggy mud with no shoes, the unbearable heat of the jungle leaving them sweaty and uncomfortable; the stinging sensation of bacteria infecting the cuts that grazed their skin... they were surely lost.

"Uhhhh..." groaned the celestial mage.

Natsu, after a while, decided to stop. He turned to face Lucy.

"How long have we been walking?" she asked.

His face was softer now, less angry. "Well... we finished off that beast back there around the early hours of the morning," he looked up as it began to rain harder, soaking the pair of them. "...the sky's darker now," he finished softly.

"It must be going into late afternoon, at least. I was hoping we could stop and rest somewhere. I..." she looked down then gestured to her thigh, a deep gash beginning to ooze red liquid, trailing down her leg.

_Tsshhhhh~_

Lucy looked up, startled by the odd sound. Natsu tore off a sleeve from his already destroyed clothing so that both his arms were bare.

"Hold still," said the fire mage, walking up to her and kneeling down. She stood still, soothed by the burning skin of his fingers as they touched her cold thighs. More rain was sure to come down so he worked quickly, tightening the piece of his shirt around her leg wound in order to keep her from losing any more blood. When he'd finished tying the knot to stay in place, he stood up and offered his left hand. Confused at first, Lucy questioned his action but took his anyway in her right hand - surprised when he intwined their fingers and carried on walking at his usual steady but determined pace. He probably felt a lot of pity for her, looking so pathetic, she thought.

But still, her cheeks couldn't help burn a steaming crimson.


End file.
